in association with Bath Spa University

Jika Jika, 4A Princes Buildings, George Street, Bath BA1 2ED

Tuesday 12 June 2012, 18.00

Networking with a twist! Students from Bath Spa University and members of the Cultural Forum have less than four minutes to meet one another and share their interests, ideas and expertise.

Combining traditional networking and partnership building with the pressure of a ticking clock, these relaxed and informal events have proven a hit with students and industry alike, often introducing local professionals to the University’s emerging talent for the first time, whilst students have secured relevant placement, mentoring and other developmental opportunities.

This event is suitable for shapes and sizes of Cultural Forum members, large or small, professional or amateur, even individual artists. Taking part does not commit you to any further involvement – it’s an opportunity for you to meet bright and enthusiastic students, keen to learn more about what you do and how they might contribute in some way to your organisation in return for some experience of the arts and cultural world.

Members wishing to take part should contact CFBA Director Martin Pople at directorbacf@googlemail.com

Head of Employability, Adam Powell and Leah Snape, Placements & Mentoring Coordinator at Bath Spa University will give a short talk at the CFBA meeting on Wednesday 23^rd May at the American Museum, outlining the many and various schemes designed to bring together the cultural and student communities.

Placements and Mentoring fact sheet for BACF May 2012

This meeting will consider changes to the constitution and election proceedures, in order to establish the CFBA as a Community Interest Company.

Guest speakers are Nick Brook-Sykes, the new Chief Executive of Bath Tourism Plus, and Adam Powell and Leah Snape of Bath Spa University, who will be talking about the links to be made between the student and cultural communities.

All documents relating to this meeting including

• Agenda
• Minutes of the last meeting
• Proposal forms for conversion to CIC
• Revised election proceedures

can be found as downloadable Word documents at http://cfba.org.uk/new-home/about/documents/

Members and non members welcome, but please note that only members whose fees for 2011-12 have been paid may vote.

New Oriel Hall, Larkhall  Bath 10am-1pm £40 booking essential (disabled access)

We love real books but there is no escaping that digital publication is the future. Come to this workshop and get tips from an author who made it through to the quarter finals of the Amazon breakthrough novel award with her Kindle publication ‘Reach for a Different Sun’

Alex, with Jenni’s help, has published a collection of six award winning short stories on Kindle – ‘Holding On’ by Alex Wilson –ready to download now for £1.02 click on this linkhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Holding-On-ebook/dp/B007H7UNVA

Synopsis with a smile – Thursday 5th July Mr. B’s bookshop 6.30-8.30pm £24

If there’s one thing almost every author hates, it’s writing a synopsis. How long should it be? What to put in and what to leave out?

Cornerstones Literary Consultancy will show you how to write a synopsis that will have an agent champing at the bit.

Mr. B’s in Bath Thursday 5th July 6.30pm-8.30pm £26

Turn your life into fiction - New Oriel Hall   Sunday  15th July 10-1pm £22

A morning of inspiring creative writing exercises with Alex and Jude.  Bridging the gap between therapeutic and Fiction writing this workshop will find those stories in your life that can yield ideas for novels, memoirs or simply to get you writing if you are a beginner or give you fresh ideas if you are experienced

Booking for all events at  www.writingeventsbath.co.uk

The fund will increase opportunities for audiences to access, enjoy and understand a broad range of film across England.

More here.

Plans to axe 150 posts – a quarter of its current workforce – are being considered by Arts Council England as the quango tries to halve its running costs, The Stage can reveal.

The government ordered the arts council to cut its administrative costs by 50% in the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review and these must be in place by 2015.

As well as losing 150 posts, the new model under consideration will mean changes to how ACE operates regionally. Instead of the current system of nine regions, there will be five regional and one national hub. However, the relationship manager role – which provides support to arts organisations on the ground at a local level – will remain.

£3m is being awarded to nine bidders to the first round of Arts Council England’s (ACE) new strategic touring fund, which was established to encourage collaboration between organisations to reach more people across England, especially those who live in places with low levels of arts engagement and those that that rely on touring for much of their arts provision.

The biggest grant, worth almost £1.1m, has been earmarked to enable Tate to present Artist Rooms On Tour 2013-15, a touring exhibition through a network of 36 associate venues. The programme will be supported by digital resources and participatory learning activities for young people, and aims to give 2.9 million people access to high quality artwork.

A further £1m goes to Dance East to present ‘Kinder Dance’, a three-year project to commission and distribute dance made for children and their families across six English regions.

But not all the projects are of this scale – a £40k grant goes to Faceless Outdoor Performance and Community Arts to present outdoor performances and tented creative activities for families at small scale events in 12 areas in the Wakefield District, and to provide training and event support for local volunteer organisers.

The other successful applicants are Creative Arts East, Theatre Hullabaloo, Root Music Ltd, Asian Arts Agency, The Play House (B’ham) Ltd, and The Demon Barbers.

A further £12m will be allocated through five more rounds of touring grants over the next three years, during which period a total of £45m of Lottery funds will be distributed through ACE’s strategic touring programme.

A Night Less Ordinary was a pilot scheme to test whether theatre attendance by under 26s could be increased if price was removed as a barrier, by offering free theatre tickets to children and young people at more than 200 participating venues throughout England.

The report may be accessed here.

If successful in their second stage applications, Tate St Ives, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Bristol Old Vic and Stroud Valleys Artspace will receive more than £14.5 million between them.

Nationally, there have been 26 successful projects, with the majority focusing on the refurbishment or extension of existing arts buildings, and ranging from the replacement of critical equipment to large scale renovations and improvements. The Arts Council proposes to invest just over £114 million in this first round of the fund, its first new capital investment in nine years. A full list of projects can be found here.

You can access The Space now at thespace.org or by viewing on connected TV or The Space channel (Freeview HD channel 117).

At the heart of The Space is a new commissioning model, enabling  artists and organisations to film and make work specifically for the  main digital platforms. Some are live-streaming their events, others  trailblazing new formats, all with mentoring support and training from  the BBC where required.

More here.